Chat on WhatsappPrivacy Notice for Candidates and Job Applicants at element GmbH
Privacy Notice for Customers and Business Partners | Privacy Notice for Website Visitors
Information pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Last updated: 15 September 2026
1. Data Controller
The controller responsible for processing your personal data is:
element GmbH, Bockenheimer Landstrasse 13-15, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, telephone +49 69 15 39 254-0, fax +49 69 15 39 254-49, email: info@element.de
Managing Directors: Laura Reisdorf, Christian Schmitt, Torsten Fischer, Andreas Fischer
2. Data Protection Officer
Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at: datenschutzbeauftragter@datenschutzexperte.de
Alternatively, you may write to the controller at the address above, marking your correspondence ‘For the attention of the Data Protection Officer’:
PROLIANCE GmbH
Data Protection Officer
Leopoldstr. 21
80802 Munich
3. Personal Data We Process
In the course of our work as a recruitment consultancy, we process the following categories of your personal data:
- Personal and contact details: surname, first name, address, email address, telephone number
- Application documents: CV, covering letter, references and certificates
- Professional information: professional experience, qualifications, specialist knowledge and language skills
- Salary expectations and availability: desired salary, proposed start date and notice period
- References: where provided by you or obtained with your consent
- Conversation notes: information from telephone calls, video calls or face-to-face meetings with you
- Communications data: email correspondence and message histories on professional networks
4. Sources of Your Personal Data
We obtain your personal data from the following sources:
- Directly from you: through your application, communications or conversations with us
- From publicly accessible sources: in particular, professional networks such as LinkedIn and XING, where you maintain a publicly accessible profile
- From third parties: where you are recommended to us by a business partner, client or another person
Where we do not obtain personal data directly from you, we will inform you of its source no later than one month after obtaining it or when we first contact you (Article 14 GDPR).
5. Purposes and Legal Bases of Processing
We process your personal data for the following purposes and on the following legal bases:
| Purpose | Legal basis | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Assessing your suitability for a specific position | Article 6(1)(b) GDPR (steps taken prior to entering into a contract) | The processing is necessary to consider your application and put you forward for suitable positions with our clients. |
| Creating anonymised or pseudonymised candidate profiles for our clients | Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interests) | Our legitimate interest lies in placing suitable candidates. Profiles containing identifying details are disclosed to clients only with your consent. |
| Summarising and preparing your application documents | Article 6(1)(b) GDPR | To process your application efficiently and prepare for interviews. |
| Contacting and communicating with you | Article 6(1)(b) GDPR | As part of the recruitment process. |
| Preparing for and following up on interviews | Article 6(1)(b) GDPR | To conduct the selection process to an appropriate professional standard. |
| Preparing business development communications using anonymised profiles | Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interests) | Our legitimate interest lies in initiating business relationships. At this stage, the profiles contain no identifying information. |
| Including you in our candidate pool for future positions | Article 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent) | Only with your express consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time. |
| Establishing, exercising or defending legal claims | Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interests) | Retention after the recruitment process has ended in order to protect against potential claims. |
6. Use of AI-Assisted Tools
As part of our recruitment services, we use AI-assisted tools to provide our services more efficiently and to a higher standard. We wish to be transparent with you about this.
6.1 Which AI tools do we use?
We use various AI-assisted tools, currently including, in particular, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro and Anthropic’s Claude. We may also use other AI-assisted tools; this list is therefore not exhaustive.
Before using an AI system, we assess whether the applicable data protection, contractual and organisational requirements have been met.
In particular, we ensure that:
- personal data is processed on a valid legal basis;
- the necessary data protection and contractual arrangements are in place;
- personal data is processed only to the extent necessary;
- appropriate technical and organisational measures are in place to protect personal data; and
- AI-generated outputs are reviewed by our employees before they are used.
6.2 What do we use AI for?
We use AI-assisted tools in particular for:
- summarising your CV to create candidate profiles for our clients;
- drafting text for job advertisements and search assignments;
- preparing for interviews by summarising available information;
- drafting anonymised introductory communications presenting your qualifications to prospective employers; and
- assisting with the summarisation of notes from our conversations with you.
6.3 What AI Does Not Do in Our Organisation
- No automated decision-making: decisions about your suitability or whether to forward your profile to clients are made exclusively by individuals. AI assists with preparing information but does not make selection decisions.
- No profiling within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR: we do not carry out any automated evaluation of personal aspects that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
- No processing of special categories of personal data (e.g. health data or religious beliefs) using AI tools.
6.4 Quality Assurance
All AI-generated content, in particular summaries of your CV or qualifications, is reviewed by our employees for accuracy, completeness and freedom from discrimination before it is used or disclosed to third parties.
7. Recipients of Your Personal Data
Your personal data is disclosed to the following recipients or categories of recipient:
| Recipient | Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Prospective employers (our clients) | Presenting your qualifications as part of the recruitment process | Article 6(1)(b) GDPR – profiles containing identifying details are disclosed only with your consent |
| AI service providers | AI-assisted text processing on behalf of element GmbH | Article 28 GDPR (processing on behalf of a controller) |
| IT service providers / hosting providers | Technical operation of our systems | Article 28 GDPR (processing on behalf of a controller) |
| Job boards (e.g. LinkedIn, StepStone and Indeed) | Publishing job advertisements and conducting the recruitment process | Article 6(1)(b) GDPR |
Your personal data is transferred to recipients outside the EU/EEA only where appropriate safeguards are in place (e.g. EU Standard Contractual Clauses or an adequacy decision by the European Commission). We do not currently transfer personal data to third countries.
8. Retention Periods
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes stated above or for as long as statutory retention obligations apply:
| Situation | Retention period |
|---|---|
| Active recruitment process | For the duration of the recruitment process |
| After the recruitment process has ended (without placement) | Erasure as soon as the data is no longer required to defend against potential claims, unless other consent has been given |
| Inclusion in the candidate pool (with consent) | Until you withdraw your consent (active follow-up) |
| Successful placement | Retention in accordance with commercial and tax-law requirements (generally up to 10 years for documents relevant to invoicing) |
| Establishing / defending legal claims | Until the applicable limitation periods have expired (generally 3 years after the recruitment process has ended) |
9. Your Rights
Under the GDPR, you have the following rights:
- Right of access (Article 15 GDPR): you may request information about the personal data we hold about you and how we process it.
- Right to rectification (Article 16 GDPR): if the personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you may request that it be corrected.
- Right to erasure (Article 17 GDPR): you may request the erasure of your personal data, provided that no statutory retention obligations or legitimate interests require its continued retention.
- Right to restriction of processing (Article 18 GDPR): in certain circumstances, you may request that the processing of your personal data be restricted.
- Right to data portability (Article 20 GDPR): you have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or to request that it be transmitted to another controller.
- Right to object (Article 21 GDPR): where processing is based on legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR), you may object to the processing at any time. We will then cease processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests.
- Right to withdraw consent (Article 7(3) GDPR): where you have given us your consent (e.g. to inclusion in the candidate pool), you may withdraw it at any time with effect for the future. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.
- Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Article 77 GDPR): you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. The supervisory authority responsible for element GmbH is:
The Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, website: https://datenschutz.hessen.de/
10. Requirement to Provide Personal Data
You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide your personal data. However, unless you provide the personal data required for the recruitment process, in particular your CV, contact details and qualifications, we will be unable to include you in our recruitment activities.
11. Contact
If you have any questions about data protection or wish to exercise your rights, please contact:
element GmbH, Bockenheimer Landstrasse 13-15, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, telephone +49 69 15 39 254-0, fax +49 69 15 39 254-49, email: info@element.de
Alternatively, please contact our Data Protection Officer directly (see section 2).